No Such Thing As Nargles
by TheIncredibleFloom
Summary: In which Luna gets a kitten and a great many things go missing.


"Luna – it's so cute! When did you get it?"

Ginny scooped the kitten in question off of the library table where Luna was just finishing her studying and held it to her chest, stroking its tiny gray head.

"And what's that around its neck?" she asked, examining what appeared to be a collar made of butterbeer corks much like the necklace Luna wore around her own neck.

"Just last week," Luna addressed Ginny's first question. "The collar is so it can't run away. Nargles do have a tendency to escape. Daddy brought it back from Sweden." She smiled dreamily and began to gather up her belongings.

Ginny blinked, but recovered quickly from her confusion; one came to expect such things when they associated with Luna Lovegood. Rather than contradict Luna's steadfast belief in the existence of Nargles, she said, "I thought Nargles lived in mistletoe."

"They do," Luna assured her seriously. "Daddy was searching for Crumple-Horned Snorkacks when he stumbled across a whole nest of Nargles and caught this one for me, since I told him everyone else at Hogwarts has a pet." Looking quite pleased with herself, she took the kitten from Ginny's arms and placed it in her bag, where it sat with just its nose peeking out from under the flap. "Perhaps it'll tell the other Nargles to stop taking my things now…" she added as an afterthought. With that, she swept from the library, leaving Ginny to ponder the encounter in amusement.

The sky was darkening quickly as Luna navigated the corridors to the Ravenclaw common room. Glancing out the window, she watched as the last straggling fifth years drifted back to the castle, reluctant to give up the freedom of the outdoors and return to their dormitories, where piles of classwork and O.W.L. reviews would inevitably be waiting. The professors were all bearing down mercilessly, impressing upon the students just how important it was to get as many O.W.L.s as possible. Luna was sure she didn't need many to become a naturalist. Probably only Care of Magical Creatures, and that was easy enough. She already knew how to deal with impressive creatures like the Crumple-Horned Snorkack.

Inside the common room she was greeted by the sight of her shoes swinging from the tiers of the chandelier that hung in the center of the room, which was not a terribly unusual occurrence. Making a mental note to get them down later, she ambled across the room toward the dormitory stairs, but was stopped short by a call of "Oi! Looney!" She turned as Marietta Edgecomb rose from a squashy blue armchair in the corner of the room.

"Missing something, Looney?" she sneered. A few people around the room snickered.

Luna turned her eyes up to the chandelier. "I suppose I am. Must be the Nargles again." With a wave of her wand, the shoes drifted down from the ceiling and she caught them neatly in her free hand.

"Nargles! Do you hear that? Looney's really gone bonkers this time!" exclaimed Marietta. The laughter of her fellow Ravenclaws followed her all the way up the stairs and only receded when she shut the door of the dormitory firmly. It probably wasn't safe to go down and finish her homework in the common room now, she decided. With this in mind, she opted to call it an early night and settled into bed. The kitten climbed out of her bag and poked its nose into her face inquisitively.

"Oh dear, I nearly forgot about you. Goodnight, Nargle," she said, pulling it into her arms and allowing her eyes to fall shut. As she drifted to sleep, she failed to feel the little creature wriggle from her grasp. It jumped to the ground and set off across the room, slipping through the door the next time a student entered the dormitory.

~O~

Meanwhile, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were situated around the fire in the Gryffindor common room. Harry was scribbling on a piece of parchment, pausing every so often to look over what he'd written. Ron was complaining loudly about how he had so much work that he would never finish it with time to spare for Quidditch, although he didn't seem to be making any visible effort to get it done. Hermione, who had two knitting needles clacking in the air in front of her, rapidly producing a hat, was doing her best to soothe him. After a moment, Harry set down his quill with a noise of frustration.

"This is ridiculous," he said. "Hermione, I have no idea what uses the bezoar has besides being an antidote. Take a look at this, would you?"

She obliged, although she couldn't resist rolling her eyes. "You haven't even spelled bezoar right. If you actually paid attention in Potions, you wouldn't have so much trouble with the assignments."

"He can't very well listen to the lesson with that git taking stabs at him every chance he gets," protested Ron. "And anyway, we're all too busy avoiding the trail of slime he leaves when he walks by to hear what he's saying."

Harry grinned. "He has a point there."

"It's still no excuse not to pay attention in class," Hermione said, punctuating her point with a glare.

"That's what we've got you for," Ron said. "I'm going to bed." He collected his books and papers in a disheveled heap and disappeared up the stairs, Hermione glowering at his back.

"Here." She made a few corrections to Harry's paper, then thrust it back at him and settled deeper into her chair.

"Thanks, Hermione. You're a lifesaver." Harry glanced around. "Where's my quill?"

"Ronald probably took it," she said. "You can borrow mine."

"But it was right here. I just saw it."

"Well, I don't know, Harry! Maybe it got tired of being used to write such absolute drivel and it ran away," she snapped.

Hermione was obviously going to be in a bad mood for the rest of the night, and Harry didn't fancy sticking around to hear a discourse on how much of a prat Ron was. Accepting defeat, he stood.

"Maybe we should go to bed too," he suggested. "We've got the whole weekend to finish this stuff."

"I just want to get this hat done… give me a few minutes," she said, indicating the knitting needles still hard at work in front of her. Despite her dire mood, they hadn't wavered. Harry packed up his things and waited for her to strategically place the hat, knowing it would be added to the growing collection on Dobby's bald head, and they both retreated to their separate dormitories.

~O~

The next morning was Saturday, and Harry laid in his bed long after the sun had risen, luxuriating in the fact that he had a whole two days to ignore his schoolwork and do as he pleased. When he finally found the motivation to venture down to breakfast, he decided it would be a good idea to visit Hagrid. This was where his plan came to a halt. Rifling through his trunk, he couldn't seem to locate his scarf. He checked under the bed and in the drawers of his bedside table with similar results. None of his roommates remembered seeing it. At last he concluded that he would just have to brave the frosty grounds without it.

On his way to the first floor, Harry turned a corner and nearly collided with Luna and Ginny. Ginny had been talking about something animatedly, and Luna appeared to be gazing with unfocused eyes at the air to his left.

"Ginny, Luna," he greeted them. Ginny returned his hello, and Luna gave him a sweetly vacant smile. "You haven't happened to see a Gryffindor scarf lying about, have you?"

"Not recently," Ginny replied. "Have you lost yours?"

"I must have misplaced it. It's a bit strange, actually; my quill disappeared last night as well."

Luna, who had thus far been silent, interjected, "If we're talking about missing things, has anyone seen my Nargle?"

"Your... Nargle?" asked Harry.

"Daddy gave it to me as a souvenir from his Crumple-Horned Snorkack hunt in Sweden. I haven't seen it all day."

"Oh, er… no. I haven't seen it, sorry."

"You're not the only one who's had things going missing, Harry. I heard Justin Finch-Fletchley saying he couldn't find his Charms book today," Ginny said.

"I suspect all the things that have gone missing are in the same place as my Nargle," Luna announced. "They'll turn up; they always do."

Ginny and Harry both stared at her.

"Nargles are always stealing my things," she assured them.

The other two, who were well aware that it was not Nargles, but other students, who frequently took Luna's possessions, smiled uncomfortably.

"Well, er, I was just going to visit Hagrid," Harry said.

"Mind if I come along?" Ginny asked quickly.

"Not at all. See you around, Luna." A pleasant warmth grew in Harry's chest as Ginny fell into step beside him.

Luna waved, and they set off down the corridor.

"The Nargle is really a kitten," Ginny explained. "But it's probably Peeves taking everyone's things."

"Well, Nargles do have a habit of stealing things," he replied automatically. Ginny raised an eyebrow and he felt himself going red. "Luna told me."

Ginny laughed as they passed through the main doors. "Of course. I have to go, I promised Dean I would walk around the lake with him. See you!"

Harry watched her receding figure for a moment, his heart sinking ever so slightly, then continued on his way to Hagrid's. He broke into a run as the cold crept its way under his collar where his scarf should have been.

~O~

Later that night, or, more accurately, at one o' clock the following morning, Luna Lovegood lingered in the deserted Ravenclaw common room, attempting to lessen the stack of papers in front of her. Immersed in her studies, she was at first oblivious to the noises coming through the common room door. But her keen ears soon caught the sound; something was scratching at the door, and she could hear the brass knocker that guarded the entrance admonishing whatever it was. Luna rose from her chair, stretched, and went to investigate.

Pushing open the door, she giggled at the sight that met her eyes. The knocker was still determinedly fussing at the intruder –FILTHY ANIMAL, DESTROYING MY DOOR, BEGONE WITH YOU - who was none other than her Nargle. Encircling the animal's neck and dragging along the corridor behind it was a long Gryffindor scarf. She knelt and reached out a hand.

-DESECRATING THE ENTRANCE TO THE NOBLE HOUSE OF RAVENCLAW-

"I've been looking for you, you naughty Nargle," Luna admonished. "Where have you been?"

The cat sneezed.

"That doesn't tell me much." She scratched behind its fluffy ears.

-BELITTLING THE LEGACY OF ROWENA RAVENCLAW-

"Oh, be quiet," Luna told the knocker. As she picked up the kitten and returned to the common room, she thought she heard it muttering something that sounded suspiciously like an unpleasant remark about people who read the Quibbler.

~O~

Luna presented Harry with his scarf the next morning, which he was genuinely happy to receive; his teeth had been chattering when he'd reached Hagrid's the previous day.

"Where did you find it?" he inquired.

"Things have a funny way of finding me."

"Oh. Er, thanks, anyway," he told her, mystified as always by her vague responses, and she smiled absentmindedly. "I'm supposed to be studying with Hermione in the library," Harry added.

"Alright... bye then…" Luna fluttered her fingers in a wave and turned to go, but she had only gone a few steps before she paused to peer over her shoulder at him. "Harry, I would watch my possessions a little more closely if I were you. Nargles are notoriously tricky."

As she made her way down the corridor, Harry watched Luna's kitten push its head free of her bag, where it had been lurking. He could have sworn it winked at him.


End file.
